


like trying to hold water he, (always seems to make me sink)

by chelfairy



Series: supernctural [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dragons, Fairies, Fluff, Gen, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan-centric, M/M, Sirens, Vampires, Witches, and many more! - Freeform, dreamies being cute, i forgot, i hurt my fave bubbs, in this instalment we have, most of the pairings are implied, supernctral, there’s talk of cannibalism fyi, we also have loads of, welcome back too..., well ambiguous ending, we’ve also got our favourite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 20:26:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15493992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelfairy/pseuds/chelfairy
Summary: donghyuck’s normally really good at keeping his, admittedly, large head above water.(except for today, or today of the past.)





	like trying to hold water he, (always seems to make me sink)

**Author's Note:**

> hi :) i’m back lmao,,,
> 
> so i’ve been gone for a while!! gcses and life did me dirty but i’ve got a ton of stuff for this series that’s been sitting on the back burner that’s ready to serve!! 
> 
> i decided to torture hyuck in this because truly i love him.
> 
> a special thanks to esmee whom as usual hyped to out my shit and lola for beta-ing. a big thanks to you guys for the interest in my first fic and all the great feedback and kudos. this is my longest written piece ever and i’m really happy to share it with you all!
> 
> title from my fave sophia black who acc rt my twt about me naming my fic after her song!
> 
> please enjoy my first mini monster:

donghyuck remembers gibraltar with the kind of bright vividness he wishes he didn’t. 

the soft, glowing, pearl, chalk of the cliff side, smothered in dense patches of viridian; the golden glittering of the warm, sand coloured rock that formed the pier and the steps leading up to the arching, white, glory of the mosque. the sea, a clear sparkling expanse, the deepest cobalt, glossed with a layer of diamonds. 

across the water lay the red brick structure of morocco, beautiful russet coloured, like a phoenix had dripped all over the landscape. facing the two pillars, the sun shining high above him, donghyuck felt like a mirror- every shade of red and gold draped across him.

when his mother calls him away from the edge of the water, their tour group’s a short distance in front of her, heading up the white cliff, he jolts quickly from his reprise, bounding towards them. his twin sister throws him what he thinks is an amused look and he smiles at her, a small part of him already missing this view of the sea. 

he looks back, drinking in the ocean, one last time, eyes fond. 

“come on duckie, we don’t wanna be left behind,” his mum calls again, voice insistent, the corner of her eyes pinched. he hums his assent and trails up the steps, towards her. 

his sister, however, seems to note his wistfulness, bumping shoulders with him as they ascend, the air around them leaving heavy, wet, kisses on their too tanned, bare arms and legs. 

“you’ll come down soon enough,” she says with a snort, her eyes shinning oddly, behind him he can feel his mother’s omniscient gaze, not that he could see her every well with the sudden darkness entering the jungle-like canopy provided. donghyuck peers around disorientated by the abrupt shade, he doesn’t know how the world can go from light to dark so fast.

truthfully, he has no idea.  
. 

jaemin wakes him up. 

their room smells like flowers and blood, decaying and sweet. in the back of his mind he wonders if maybe its just the smell of the latter. jaemin’s lips aren’t stained red, but it wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last. in a twisted way the smell is comforting. 

“why’d you wake me up?” he croaks pushing the taller off his chest. the feeling of his lungs collapsing inwards doesn’t cease like he had hoped.

“you seemed distressed,” jaemin answers, too much clarity in his eyes for the inhumanly early hour, twilight pouring in through the large french-style windows, casting silver shadows on his face, from where they’d forgotten to close the curtains before climbing into bed.

“i’m fine,” he sighs, curling into the other, knowing that jaemin had no plans to sleep but he was willing to lay around with him. 

the other hums, obviously disbelieving but doesn’t pry, running his perpetually cold hands through donghyuck’s sunset coloured locks. the dye had begun to fade out, his hair growing out an inky crown. 

donghyuck is glad that he woke up to the moon, under the broad yellow disk in the sky, he felt like nothing but a poor imitation of what he had once been. 

it’s depressing, but what’s more depressing is waking up the second time. donghyuck’s bones feel hollowed out and he has absolutely no energy. it’s makes him moody and clingy, a generally unlikable state. 

jaemin is happy with all the extra cuddling, always craving skin-ship and the warmth that being alive provides, but his suspicion of what today means is mounting along with his usually frigid body temperature, so after his shower hyuck ditches their room for the library. 

most days he has nothing to do but play around with his friends, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t well acquainted with the perpetual musty warmth of the predominantly oaken room. he’d spent a lot of his alone time here in the past, learning as much as he could about the magical community- and then when he’d finally felt at home, researching ways to mess around with magic. 

when donghyuck enters, both taeil and doyoung are a little more wary than they are surprised. research on his part could only spell mayhem, so overall their reaction is wise and not offensive. 

there’s underlying fondness in their eyes, but he pretends he can’t see, pretends he doesn’t want it. if his face wasn’t so pale and his eyes so teary he’d say he was completely in character. 

“good morning hyung,” he calls to the both of them, heading to where he knows they keep the fairy tales. its funny reading about how humans perceive magical creatures, it’s funny reading about how he used to perceive magical creatures. 

most of the spines have been cracked, the leather ones creased satisfyingly. always one to judge a book by its cover, donghyuck let’s his eyes skip over these newly returned and recently read titles, searching for the path less trodden- or book less read. 

he doesn’t get to. as his eyes trail over the never ending stream of titles and authors, his vision blurs. outside, there’s a mulberry beast devouring the sun.

he’s not sure if his hyungs are still talking. the world is muffled.

.

at the top of the cliff the scenery seemed surreal. the night before it had stormed, torrents of harsh clouds shot cold bullets upon the earth, the wind gripped every tree and leaf in hopes to tear and shred, the sky paled as though the sun had engulfed it and all that was left was the brilliant white shade of its shock. 

donghyuck hadn’t really minded, his feet achy from the days they’d spent in museums and markets across the southern spanish shoreline. his mother looks considerably less comfortable, even in the pretty pink silk of her night gown and the warm air of their hotel suite her eyes were wild, restless energy pouring out of her pores, forcing her muscles to move. 

“what’s wrong?” his sister asked her, eyes knowing, smile calm. 

“nothing love,” she said throwing donghyuck a glance he ignored, far to focused on the plot of the book clasped tightly in his hands, hair appearing blood red in the dim light, “nothing at all,” 

on the cliff, in the present, the past really, donghyuck is happy, the only grey in sight the fur of the monkeys, their dusky hands eager for any morsels the tourists could provide them. 

he finds a space where they won’t bother him and listens to the sounds of people, of powerful waves and crumbling stone. 

“it’s really nice here, isn’t it?” his sister says softly from beside him, he hums in consent, transfixed by the sounds of the scenery, content with her presence. 

“i could live here forever,” he answers, something in him preventing him from saying something else, she stares at him when he says that, he feels her bright brown eyes on him, he glances at her and for a second she looks unsure, sad, wistful. 

“i could live here forever too,” she says after a few beats, eyes thoughtful for a second before they calm again, like sea waves, continuous and amoral. 

“should we ask mum to stay?” he jokes, eyes fixed on the horizon once more, there’s a patch of foam swirling somewhere in the centre, it reminds him of that one myth about the goddess of love. greece isn’t that far away from spain, he supposes.

“i think she’d let you,” his sister whispers, her smile suddenly gratingly cheerful, she pushes off the railing with great energy, the white linen of her dress trapping wind. she turns away from  
him heading back to where he thinks his parents are standing. 

he doesn’t have the time to look back and check. 

.

“hyuck?” doyoung calls softly. donghyuck pauses, he doesn’t know when his eyes had glazed over or how long he’d been standing in front of the bookcase- that’s if he’s standing at all, he can’t feel his limbs and he’s a little bit worried now. 

“hey,” taeil says softly from beside him, a gentle hand on his elbow, all at once control of his body returns to him, overpowering like the waves at the beach that day. 

“i’m fine,” he says ignoring the knowing worried gaze they share, ignoring the tremble of his knees and voice, ignoring the fact that he feels all their attention on him as he turns invisible slowly. “i’m fine,” he insists, pushing power he doesn’t have into his voice. they nod wordlessly, though he has a feeling his voice didn’t take the effect it should’ve, and he escapes from the library quickly. 

there’s still time until breakfast, lunch, whichever, donghyuck thinks, he can linger around the kitchen and then maybe go back to bed. 

the halls of the manor are blessedly empty but it’s unnervingly quiet, if he thinks to little or too much he can hear the sound of water, caged and ranging against stone walls and eroded chalk. 

he walks faster. purposely avoiding the light that pools and puddles through the french windows, walking faster still when he reaches the bottom step of the grand staircase and the shiny marble floor of the manor entrance. 

he’s walking so fast he doesn’t even notice the warm body he slams into. 

donghyuck bites his tongue to resist cursing as he feels familiar large hands preventing him from rebounding onto the polished floor. he wants to curl up into a ball, the heat from the others body scalding on his paling skin. 

“are you okay?” yukhei asks, his deep voice genuinely concerned. donghyuck knows that if he looks up he’ll find a pair of equally concerned eyes.

“i’m fine hyung,” he chokes, willing the gelatine that is his legs to set already so he can escape the taller’s imploring gaze. 

“are you sure?” yukhei asks antsy, his hand rubbing circles on his shoulders, not his back, never his back. donghyuck nods because he cant trust his tongue anymore, his throat filled with the noise of the ocean in his head. 

he nods again, more frantic, because he can’t hear what the elder is saying anymore, can only hope that whatever it is it requires ‘yes’ as answer and will be enough to appease the other so he can go.

“no you’re not,” yukhei mumbles cradling him closer; donghyuck falls limp. 

. 

a child is screaming somewhere behind him. but donghyuck’s not sure where behind is anymore. there’s pressure at his back, the burning scratch of linen against his calf, and then there’s nothing at all. just the phantom feeling of fingers on his spine. an apology spelled in tears on his nape.

he thinks he’s falling, but there’s no wind in his ears, no sun in his eyes, no feeling surrounding him. just the sea.

the relentless pounding of the waves across the cliff side, punishing heaping chunks of broken stones until their edges smoothen. 

when donghyuck hits the water it gets louder. he wishes his whole world went silent and black and empty like his heart had felt in the moment. instead there’s the never-ending sounds of the ocean, an orchestra of something older and an array of brightness.

he finds vindictive pleasure, in the way the red, that leaks from his ears, stains the perfect backdrop of the otherworldly light. 

he has no energy to fight, no energy to struggle, no energy to live- all he has energy to do is laugh, cold water filling his lungs with every inhale. 

it’s ironic. 

“i could live here forever,” he had said. 

he should have said “i could die here,”, when he’d stood by her at the top of the cliff. he should have told her the truth, he should have let his mother know. 

maybe then it wouldn’t sting as much, maybe then they wouldn’t have regretted, eyes perpetually pinched and empty.

“i am going to die here,” donghyuck realises, after a beat, staring aimlessly into the crowded nothingness. there are no more bubbles and no more blood. as the red dissipates into nothing he realises he never had a choice. 

there is him, the light, his thoughts and the sound of the waves eroding his skull. 

.

donghyuck gasps deep when he returns. he’s not in the entrance of the manor anymore, he’s outside, in the shade of the porch swing johnny had insisted valiantly that they absolutely needed. 

yukhei is beside him, a comforting, solid presence. despite this, next to the older, donghyuck feels like he’s fading out. the sun is at the crest of its hike across the sky and donghyuck has never been so thankful for shadows.

in the trees above them there are birds singing a song, now more than ever he wants to fall into a melody but his mind is stormy waters and there are too many old shanties in his head to make him feel at ease. 

they sit in silence, yukhei’s left foot is dangling over the side of the swing, creating a steady rocking motion, which, to anyone who wasn’t donghyuck would be soothing, before he realises and catches himself, letting the ambience of mid-spring glaze them in a wash of calm. 

“do you want to talk about it?” the taller boy finally asks after about fifteen minutes of silence. donghyuck had spent the last ten minutes wondering if he’s actually turning invisible, had felt the urge to check under his socks to see his ankles but had managed to hold back. 

“i’m tired hyung,” he says as an answer, feeling all the fight, the fear, the worry, the energy wash out of him again, like a receding tide. his bones feel like vacuums, as though someone had broken them, grabbed a spoon and scrapped every drop of marrow, leaving an i filled void; he hates the feeling so much he could sob. hates the itch of an empty cavern in his chest where his will to live should linger. 

yukhei drapes his arms around him as though trying to force some of his light and energy into him. donghyuck finds it ironic how they’re both meant to be suns, stars and donghyuck’s just a white dwarf leaching off of yukhei’s supergiant glow. 

the thought almost makes him laugh, makes him think of a life simpler than right now. before the the fall, the foam and the cliff. before the white walls of gibraltar and the phone call. before the grey sky of seoul and the promise of constant sunshine. 

donghyuck wants to stop thinking but he’s too afraid of the sounds of the sinister sea screaming inside his head. 

he tucks himself further into the yukhei, hoping to be absorbed, like a binary star that flew to close to it’s partner. 

he doesn’t get the chance to try it. taeyong finds them soon enough, worry colouring the lines of his face.

donghyuck doesn’t feel like crying anymore but seeing the paleness of the elder’s skin, the dark carvings below his eyes brings salt back to his eyes and he suddenly feels like his on the cusp of drowning all over again. 

yukhei, accurately reading the mood as per usual, gently detaches himself from donghyuck’s vice grip, squeezing his pale, trembling hands and leaning again only to press his lips firmly against the black crown of his head. 

taeyong doesn’t take his seat, settles himself on donghyuck’s other side, lays his palms open for donghyuck to grab and shares a watery smile. 

in the back of his mind, he wonders who snitched to the older that this retribution day had hit him too. he guesses it was jaemin but it could have easily been taeil or doyoung. 

“we have days like this, so we never grow to cruel,” his hyung begins, his voice as empty as donghyuck’s chest, “we have days like this, so we never forget,”

“we have days like this, to remember that love is just another stage of death, and we are merely used vessels of past love,” donghyuck finishes. when he squeezes his eyelids he can see, pearl sea foam and almost laughs at the irony. 

when a siren sings, donghyuck thinks bitterly, the people they snare, hear the song of the love they loved the most, this love leads them to their death, that love kept him alive. and it’s annoying, because here he is, a human’s pinnacle of alluring being is in reality a poisoned reflection. 

taeyong’s grip on his hand gets harder. “they say in the past, sirens would lure entire fleets and destroy them, let the men splatter into rocks and sink to the bottom of the ocean, not even a single piece of flesh eaten,” 

donghyuck shudders to think, that sirens were so cruel, used their music to commit mass murder for fun, in order to feel better about how ugly they truly were, in order to get revenge for the image they didn’t want and the love they couldn’t have- believed that gorging themselves on people, who wanted merely to hear their own souls, would fill their never ending emptiness. 

thoughts like this, days like this made donghyuck wish to give up his voice. but sirens weren’t made for silence, couldn’t live if they were silent. 

they didn’t have to eat men and women, but their voices were the only powers they had and a fish could hear the call as well as a sailor, just a fish didn’t die as satisfyingly. 

.

when donghyuck wakes up, he’s on a isle. he knows which and knows where, but none of that’s important right now because he’s hungry. 

he’s never felt hunger like this before, hunger that claws at his guy, his stomach, his mouth, like some scuttling creature begging to escape.

there is no ripe fruit on the isle and no animals on the isle. 

there is green plants, sand, rock, a waterfall, and donghyuck. there is no land for miles.

he’s going to die again. 

at first, he tries to ignore it. cups freshwater in his hands and guzzles it down hoping to drown the creature his hunger grows to become. 

then it gets to much, and he tries to distract himself: counting the stars at night, naming the plants during the day, exploring the isle for any form of animal life. 

on the seventh day he is surprised he is not dead, the rolling waves of the stomach have become a part of him and he has no energy left to care. so donghyuck does what he’s always done when times are hard- he sings. 

he can’t hear his own voice, ears filled with salted water, their drums shredded by inconsiderate tides; the feeling of his mouth moving is enough. his eyes are closed, because it’s easier to pretend that he’s back at home with his sister and his mother and his father when he can’t see the vast emptiness that he dwells in now. 

when the ship hits the sand, he’s already asleep, high tide tickling his ankles and voice left hoarse.

.

donghyuck has no will to move by the dinner comes round, most likely due to the fact he hasn’t eaten all day. he doesn’t know if anyone else had eaten already and the whole day has suddenly become a compilation of blanks and dizzying moments. 

taeyong insists, that they gotta put something in their stomach at least to end the gnaw of hunger scratching their inner abdomens. despite his smile still liquid and eyes glossy, his hyung still looks beautiful, and donghyuck wonders if he does too (he’s doubtful though, very doubtful).

as a result, hyuck decides that if he’s gonna eat dinner, he’s gonna do it on this swing, or on the back porch floor or anywhere that’s not inside the dining room , filled to the brim with his hyungs and friends whom he adores but speak to loud and to fast at all times.

the elder agrees, if only to make sure donghyuck eats and leaves him on the swing just for a moment. donghyuck thinks it’s a good thing too, the glimpses of his past he’s getting now are the ones unspoken, the ones he buried in the sand of the isle, burnt from his tongue like he did the ship. 

chenle and jisung don’t get the memo, it seems, when chenle falls into his lap and jisung rearranges his scrawny limbs beside him, that they haven’t gotten the memo for the whole day.

the noise they produce, the one hyuck purposely avoided the dinning hall for, surrounds him again and he realises that in reality it’s not that bad. 

sirens truly weren’t meant for silence.

between the two of them he’s having his ear chattered off about things he’s got no clue about, his mind in a state out of touch of reality but not in the bizare realm the fates create for a siren’s mind on days like these. 

the younger boys don’t seem to mind, taking his, albeit uncommon, quietness as a sign to talk his melancholy away. donghyuck finds that he enjoys it and that alone makes him feel a little hysterical. he kind of feels like a child again, truly unsure why he’s sad, memories only a distorted puddle and this deep set sadness uncalled for. 

honestly the fates are dumb. 

maybe it’s the hysteria slotting itself into the gap his missing bone marrow has left, but donghyuck feels anger. he’s here, avoiding the sunlight he loves so dearly, avoiding his family who love him so dearly, wilting away into nothingness for the cruelty of a select few of his kind and of course, that of the human race. 

every magical species had done wrong in their past, it’s as much in their nature as it is in that of humans- and yet his beautiful hyung was being punished, re-living the most horrendous parts of his wholly painful life, and here was donghyuck, himself, who’d done no wrong and avoided temptation even at the last second, losing his mind as punishment for his “siren beauty”. 

jisung and chenle, bless them, don’t seem to see the change in his stance from sadness to anger, merely continue to regale him with whatever they had been talking about, subtly pouring positive energy into his tense shoulders. 

by the time taeyong returns with food for the three of them the anger has quit boiling his blood and left it simmering, which arguably is worst, but for the moment is good enough. 

unsurprisingly donghyuck is not particularly hungry, picking slowly at his meal and chewing excessively on every bite. jisung keeps talking with his mouthful, which should be off putting but mostly is endearing, even though jisung has long outgrown the age when eating like that should be endearing. 

he realises his mistake to late. 

. 

he’s back on the isle and it’s dawn, the sky a startling gradient of eminence and saffron, bedazzled by millions of twinkling diamonds. 

he still can’t hear, ears repairing themselves slower than he thinks they should with him being immortal or in some sort of hell- it’s the only logistical possibilities he can comes to, why else should he be alive but to suffer here for ever?

he knows from experience and sensation that the tide should be receding, merely a soft laps at his toes rather than still sliding over his ankles. this is what forces him to get up from the position he’d been in for the past few days. 

moored against the clear, dawn waters is a ship. a large one at that. 

he doesn’t know why but the idea of people feels him with a type of euphoria he’d rather avoid than dwell in. regardless, hyuck knows that if he doesn’t seek their help, doesn’t try to escape with whoever is aboard he could waste away on this empty isle. 

before he can even contemplate the best way to getting to the ship and appearing less feral and more friendly, there are people approaching him.

donghyuck wants to panic because with every step towards him they take the monstrous hunger that threatens to consume him grows larger. 

for the first time in weeks, donghyuck can hear. it make him feel sick. there’s the sound of thick blood, dark and sanguine pumping through arteries and veins, passing through organs teeming with activity, calling him to take a sip, calm the thirst he never realised he had. 

“don’t,” he calls out as soon as he knows the person is within hearing range. 

they don’t stop walking though, long legs taking larger, purposeful strides towards him. 

“please don’t,” he insists, he’s on the verge of begging, his body going into overdrive because there’s food right there in front him- but it’s not good, it’s a person and he shouldn’t feel like, it’s so wrong, so wrong that he can’t even- 

.

hyuck throws up by accident. his stomach is tripping over itself. 

jisung and chenle are still beside him, bickering merrily, though sending him worried looks and he supposes it’s because his eyes had glossed over and he’d basically become unresponsive. 

renjun and jeno, however, are a new addition to his pity party, a kind of unwanted addition too. he doesn’t want more of his friends, who come to him for moral support and a dose of human vitamin d, too see him like this too, he doesn’t want anyone to see him like this, but this day proves that fate herself has plans for donghyuck he is never to understand. 

renjun, always one to read well into the situation warns the others before grabbing an abandoned flower pot and letting hyuck return all he managed to force down his throat. 

“are you okay dude?” jeno asks when he’s done, cringing slightly at the state of his pot but mostly worried about his friend. 

donghyuck gives him a shaky thumbs up. renjun rolls his eyes. 

“you’re obviously not,” he sighs softly, gingerly sitting back down next to him, brushing damp strands of bleached hair out of hyuck’s too warm face.

“what gave it away?” he croaks, throat stripped raw by stomach acid and choked by emotions he doesn’t want to deal with, ever. 

“oh,” renjun snorts, “nothing in particular,” 

he gives a wobbly smile, watches the maknaes relax and the tension slip slowly out of jeno’s brow at the response. 

“you really scared jaemin when you disappeared,” he tells donghyuck, dropping down on his other side, forcing hyuck to wrap himself more fully around his flower pot puke bucket. 

“i’ll apologise later,” he says with a sigh, already thinking of ways to make it up to his roommate. 

“i’m pretty sure you don’t have to do that, he gets it,” jeno tells him, laying a warm hand on his nape, “we get it,” there’s a silent message in his words and actions that donghyuck doesn’t feel well enough to focus on right then and there.

chenle hums in agreement and jisung meets his eye and gives him that soft little smile thing he does. 

and despite himself, for the first time all day donghyuck feels something pleasant blossom within him. fondness. 

it’s only a small feeling but he clings to it, hoping it can drive out the pain and desperation he feels as a result of his memories. he wants them to end here, an unfinished nightmare, he’s utterly afraid of what comes next and he can assure the fates that he’s learnt his lesson, a lessons he’s not even meant to have- but it’s never that easy. 

donghyuck keeps a hold of his fondness, lets it expand in his chest, push his dread to the outskirts.

“do you want more food?” chenle prods gently, reading the minor panic in his eyes with startling accuracy. hyuck shakes his head because, food is the least of his worries right now. he wishes he could say the same back then. but it’s not that simple. 

.  
“are you okay?” the tall man asks him, worry evident in the lines of his face, creasing his brow and pinching the corners of his eyes. it doesn’t take away from the fact that he looks beautiful in an ageless manner or the fact that donghyuck can hear.

donghyuck wonders briefly if he’s a god, and it’s time for him to receive judgement. (he later learns that truly, he’s close enough to being a god). 

“oi kid!” the god-like man says, turning behind him to beckon a companion and donghyuck can say that in the moment it was honestly the last thing that he wanted.

he turns back to donghyuck, worry still glittering in his wise eyes, before he glances at him, taking in the slightness of his form to the wild mania in his eyes. donghyuck, prays that if fate had made him look this pitiful, it will entice this man’s pity and he won’t be condemned to suffering.

when said companion is not a few feet out of hyuck’s eyesight, he curls himself up, the smell of flesh and blood, causing a ruckus to explode in his stomach. it’s painful the way it causes his abdomen to tense and his heart to thump disjointedly. 

“hyung, hyung, what’s wrong with him?” the second man’s voice is too flakey and litting to be a man and hyuck assumes he must be around his age. 

“i don’t know mark, let’s just get him on the ship and in a bed,”

“it doesn’t look like he wants us to touch him,” 

“what choice do we have, we can’t leave him here,” there’s something in this tone that tells donghyuck they’ve had this conversation before.

directly afterwards donghyuck feels gentle fingers and warm, wide palms grip him softly. there’s no more sand and no more water. 

there is, however, eyes, gaze burning, tracing his form, too curious to be the man. 

“hyung,” the boy says after a brief pause, donghyuck focuses on the soft hold and not the clench of his abdomen in need. 

“do you think he’s-“ 

the elder doesn’t provide him with an answer, the silence is contemplative.

.

“so the day is still young,” jeno begins, sprawled on the couch of the game room, leg twisted at angle, such that he avoids the garlic stain on the couch. 

from where he’s spinning on a stool, renjun narrows his eyes. and despite how fierce it appears, jeno remains undeterred and hyuck smiles a little at how oblivious the elder is. 

“what do you wanna do?” he rasps, already missing the peaceful evening he could of spent wrapped in his blankets despite the sweltering heat, rapidly dampening his pillow with a substance other that sweat. 

“well,” jeno is obviously is shocked at getting this far, looking around madly and making unintelligible noises to stall for time as he figures out what exactly they can do when hyuck is so energy-deprived. 

“we could watch a movie?” jaemin suggests, saving his friend with a wink and sending puppy eyes to renjun who immediately softens. 

movies don’t sound bad to donghyuck, no bitter memories to dampen them like books and music and food.

he gives a jerk of his head and jeno sends him one of the softest smiles he’s received in a while. for a brief moment donghyuck feels gooey inside. 

they decide on mulan, renjun insists it’s because it’s a disney classic, donghyuck has more of a feeling that he wants to sing a long. jaemin doesn’t complain, happy for any opportunity to imitate mushu.

at some point between mulan meeting the matchmaker and mulan arriving at camp, chenle and jisung walk in, calico kitten yukhei and mark in tow. chenle complains loudly that they should of invited them and jisung sprawls himself across jaemin’s lap. mark deposits yukhei on to donghyuck’s, before settling by his side and in a rare show of skinship, planting his head on donghyuck shoulder. 

it’s as peaceful as it gets in the dream wing, and if donghyuck tunes out his loud friends enough he can hear the chaos of his hyungs in the rest of the manor. it sounds ordinary, not oppressive and suffocating as he had thought. 

with the soft fur of yukhei’s coat between his fingers, donghyuck can almost forget that today is supposed to be his day of punishment. 

.

when he wakes aboard the ship, the first thing donghyuck does is dry heave, the air in his cabin incredibly stale. 

the next thing he does is scramble up the stairs to the open deck, the smell of sea salt calming him despite the reflexive shiver that licks his vertebrae at the sight of the open vast waters. 

“you’re awake!” a familiar voice calls to him, he recognises him as the boy who’d helped bring him abroad. this time when he steps into donghyuck’s space, hyuck doesn’t recoil, he wonders what they did to his hunger, what he did while unconscious. 

there’s a headache budding behind his eyelids.

“yeah,” he answers lamely trying to wrack his brain for something interesting to say but drawing to a blank and deciding to observe the boy instead. his black hair is like a bowl of onyx in what donghyuck assumes is the late afternoon sun. 

the boy lets him silently process information for a moment before realising something.

“i’m minhyung by the way, but you can call me mark,” he introduces himself, leaving his hand hovering awkwardly in the air between them. donghyuck observes it for a moment too, taking notes of the ink stains and short nails, before finally gripping it for a shake.

“i’m donghyuck, nice to meet you mork,” 

the other boy scrunches his nose a little at the pronunciation but doesn’t get a chance to comment.

“mark! the kids escaped his room,” 

at the comment mark snorts, connecting their hands once more and leading donghyuck towards the source of the voice. once inside a room, that smells considerably less stale than the one donghyuck woke up in, mark introduces him to three other men- one of which is the guy who saved him on the beach- and two women.

he’s quickly introduced and forced into a chair by the pretty, stern looking women whom he learns is called joohyun. despite her small structure donghyuck can feel the hidden strength in her arms. it makes him kind of limp noodle weak and jittery all at the same time. 

although he would clearly prefer him to stay, mark is quickly shooed out of the room by the adults and donghyuck is left fidgeting uncomfortably, thoughts a blur. 

“i’m guessing you’re not hungry anymore,” one of the men ask, pulling a chair next to him. he’s thin and small in a graceful way that even donghyuck’s mother, beautiful as she had been, could never pull off. 

“i’m taeyong, i’m-“ he pauses here, obviously unsure on how to continue his sentence, he looks to the man who saved him, johnny, for help and he shrugs. despite how wise their eyes seem to be, donghyuck, to them is clearly a first. 

joohyun fiddles uncomfortably with her sleeve before turning to her companion, seulgi, who in turn turns to taeil who sighs and looks at johnny.

“let’s try a different approach, what’s your name kid?” he asks donghyuck, pulling out the chair opposite from him. 

“i’m donghyuck lee,” 

“brilliant donghyuck, can you tell us how you ended up on that island?” 

donghyuck hesitates, and maybe they can feel his uncertainty. he takes a moment to calm his racing heart, thinks about mudane things to stop himself panicking such as, who’s steering the ship and how they do laundry, before taking a big breath. 

“i fell of a cliff,” he tells johnny, struggling in the moment to look any of them in the eye. 

“you fell,” 

“i fell,” he confirms.

“all on your own?” 

“well not exactly,” 

“donghyuck,” seulgi calls warmly, beside her joohyun gives an encouraging nod though her face doesn’t change. the jittery feeling doesn’t subside, instead it intensifies, almost like it’s holding him back. his stomach suddenly feels painfully empty and hen full all over again. 

“someone pushed me, i was on holiday in spain, and someone pushed me,” 

“i’m sorry,” johnny tells him eyes genuinely apologetic, and donghyuck’s kind of shocked.

“why?” 

“donghyuck,” taeyong starts, eyes so much sadder than they should be on such an angelic face. “i’m a siren, and i guess you waking up on that island and your circumstances makes you one too,” 

the flower blooms and donghyuck’s headache hits him full force. he clamps his eye shut trying to block out the memories and the waves of hunger. 

as soon as he tries to coil himself in taeyong stops him, his delicate hands holding him in place, soothing him. 

“you’re a siren now, but you’re not alone,” taeil says warmly from where he comes to stand by taeyong, his aura distorted by what donghyuck knows now is magic. 

“you’ll be okay,” taeyong promises, donghyuck just grips his hand tighter. 

.

“we’re really sitting here and arguing whether or not mushu seasoned his congee, like that’s the important when we could be discussing how the emperor grew out that sick beard,” jisung whines. 

it brings donghyuck straight back to reality and he’s glad for it. when he closes his eyes he’s haunted by his hyung’s expression and wants nothing more than to forget. 

“you wouldn’t even look nice with facial hair,” chenle gripes, obviously ready to hit play and continue letting the credits of the movie run. 

“just for that i’m gonna grow out my facial hair,” 

“what facial hair, jisung your whole body is completely clean,” jaemin deadpans.

“what does the rest of my bodily hair have to do with my facial hair? and how do you even know?” jisung covers his chest indignant as though he isn’t wearing a tshirt. 

“guys come on, we’re meant to be calm and peaceful,” mark intones, voice a tad too loud leaving him looking hypocritical. the others however, so caught up in their conversation ignore him completely. 

“you said that straight into my ear,” donghyuck flicks mark softly, because all of a sudden his hands are shaky. he tries not to move to much as to not jostle yukhei. 

mark shoots him a sheepish smile, his eyes concerned but his demeanour relaxed, as to not worry the others. donghyuck wonders how much effort he put into not making it blatant that hyuck had been pulled into his mind again. 

he hopes it’s nots to much, he’d hate to ruin his hyung’s evening. the relalisation makes his eyes widen. they day was drawing to a close. the sun no longer there to punish him. 

on his nap, cat yukhei stretches out, evidently more awake now that the moon had risen. absentmindedly, donghyuck scratches behind his calico ears. 

mark seems to sense he’s discomfort and cuddles even closer and donghyuck’s fondness expands further in his chest. 

“let’s just put on the second dvd,” renjun decides, already slotting it into the player, despite jeno’s protests that the second one isn’t as good, and jaemin and jisung’s continuous banter. chenle is now screeching for the fun of it, donghyuck is sure. 

sensing an opportunity, mark leans closer, “how you doing?” he says softly, voice a tad awkward, because that just always been mark lee. 

donghyuck finds himself fighting back a smile and isn't that great. 

“i’m okay,” 

. 

donghyuck is lying. he has been lying since they told him the truth. 

one day, he’ll leave the manor, the magical community, he’ll go back to the cliff and look at the sea. he’ll be okay

**Author's Note:**

> :))))))))))))) 
> 
> i’m a trash person for this fic,,, but hmu my [tumblr](https://peachfairychell.tumblr.com) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/chelfairy)  
> expect more from this universe soon! i love you all and thanks for reading x


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